


Enter Mildred

by therealfroggy



Category: A-Team (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-05
Updated: 2012-12-05
Packaged: 2017-11-20 10:03:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/584159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therealfroggy/pseuds/therealfroggy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>BA adopts a kitten, Murdock falls in love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Enter Mildred

BA wasn't really such a hard-ass as everyone made him out to be. Of course, he was a damn good fighter and tough as they came, but he had a real soft spot for children, sick people and little old ladies. He felt for them; he knew how rough life was at the bottom of the ladder. And BA did not approve of anyone making life tougher for those who already had it tough.

Up until that day, however, he'd never really thought of himself as soft where animals were concerned. The damn invisible dogs and talking bugs and whatever that Murdock kept nagging about should have killed any sympathy for animals he had left, but apparently not. For when BA's eyes met a soft, shining, pleading gaze coming up at him from an old cardboard box in a dirty alleyway, he just didn't have the heart to ignore it.

Or rather, he had too much heart.

So BA carefully picked the little creature up, wrapped it in his scarf and cradled it softly against his chest as he made his way back to the van. The rest of the team were waiting for him there.

“All clear, boss,” BA said, nodding to Hannibal. “No bugs, no cameras. 'Cept ours, of course. I think we good to go.”

“The bakery across the street is a perfect hide-out,” Face said, grinning in that direction. He hadn't even turned to greet BA, being too focused on the large glass windows of the bakery shop. “And the owner said we could come back in after closing time.”

“What was her name, Face?” Hannibal said, grinning knowingly at his conman.

“Kitten!” Murdock yelled, throwing himself head-first at BA. “Can I hold it, BA? Can I can I can I?”

“Calm down, fool, you gonna scare it!” BA growled. He instinctively turned away from Murdock, twisting his body so the pilot couldn't get at the fluffy little thing carefully rocked against BA's blue shirt. “Shut up!”

Murdock instantly calmed down, gazing up at BA with wide eyes. “Please? I'll be real careful, I promise, ain't gonna do nothin' but stroke it a lil'!”

“BA, what does he mean, kitten?” Hannibal asked, giving BA a stern look.

“I ain't gonna keep it,” BA said defensively. “Just feed it and give it to one of the kids down the centre.”

“Let me have a look,” Hannibal demanded, and BA could do nothing but hand over the little bundle of cloth and kitten in his hands.

“Aaw, look at 'im, colonel,” Murdock cooed. “Ain't he a-dorable!”

The kitten meowed hopefully and clawed a little at Hannibal's glove-clad hands as the colonel held it up for inspection. It was a little thin, had soft brown fur and big brown eyes, and by the way it was trying to chew a little on Murdock's finger it was real hungry.

“Well, it's your van,” Hannibal said with a smile. “There you go, kitty. Back to your daddy.”

“I ain't it's daddy, I just -” BA objected, but Hannibal just grinned at him and climbed back in the van.

“Please?” Murdock said softly, almost in a whisper.

“You hold it while I drive, fool,” BA grumbled, waiting for Murdock to hold his hands out before gently handing the kitten over.

Not even Face dared complain when BA stopped at the first grocery store they found, left for five minutes and came back with two gigantic bottles of milk. Hannibal was chuckling to himself in the front seat of the van, Face was straightening his tie in the back and Murdock was seated on the floor between two seats, cuddling the kitten close and murmuring happily to it.

“Bosco, can we call 'im Morlock?”

“Fool, you don't even know it's a he,” BA pointed out. “Whatchu botherin' for, anyway, he gonna go home with one of the kids down the centre.”

“Aaw, Bosco! Can't we keep him?”

“I think you should, BA. You know, the adoption of a child can often save a failing relationship,” Face commented snidely from the back seat.

BA stopped the van in the middle of the street, turning around ominously. “You got somethin' to say, Faceman?”

The glare he directed at the conman could – and would – have curdled the milk in its bottles, had it been sent in that direction. As it were, Face suddenly got extremely interested in his cuticles and Hannibal's shark-like grin got even wider. Murdock was looking with big, hopeful eyes at BA; the sergeant assumed he was still waiting for an answer about the name.

“Shut up, fool.”

***

Two blocks away from the youth centre, however, they were flagged down by a skinny little boy waving his arms frantically at them from the sidewalk. BA slowed the van down and pulled up, frowning. That was Jenny's little brother, Rick; BA knew their family. Good, hard-working people, but with an elder son who had dabbled in unsavoury business and put the father into some debt. Jenny was a great girl, though, working at a flower shop to help her parents pay it.

“What's up, Rick?” BA asked, hopping out of the van.

“BA, BA! There's lotsa cops in the ball pen an' they're looking for you an' they said they're gonna arrest you!” Rick said, tongue stumbling over words in his haste to get them out. “Did you do what Denver did, BA?”

BA frowned. Denver, the older brother, had been arrested for drug running. “Nah, Rick, you know I don't roll like that. Them cops military police, kid?”

“Sure,” Rick said breathlessly. “They have uniforms an' everything!”

“Thanks, lil' buddy, I owe you one,” BA said, patting Rick's messy blonde head. “Now you tell 'em you never saw me, okay? Me and the guys here gonna leave town for a while.”

“You gotcha, BA!”

As they drove away as discreetly as they could, BA filled the rest of the team in. “So what now, Hannibal?”

“Head up north,” Hannibal said pensively, “I think I know a place where we can hang out.”

“Hannibal, we've been through this,” Face said with an edge of whining. “Every time you _know a place_ , we end up in a fishing cottage in the middle of a swamp or a run-down old house full of cockroaches in a slum somewhere. Can't you leave the scamming to me?”

“No, it's great, you'll love it,” Hannibal said with that grin of his. “Besides, we can't leave town, kid, we're in the middle of a job. But my stunt double is out of town, and I know where he keeps his spare key. Come on, guys, let's go!”

BA turned the van around and drove, listening to Face complain about the stunt double's probable lack of grooming products while Hannibal was waxing poetic about the look on Decker's face when he found out he'd missed them again. He wished they would at least talk one at a time.

Luckily, the place Hannibal knew turned out to be a fairly decent little house in a fairly quiet neighbourhood. Three small bedrooms required some discussion about sleeping arrangements, but there was a spacious living room and an old-fashioned, neat kitchen downstairs, as well as a second bathroom and a tiny den. After the cockroaches BA had had to kill in the hallway outside his last hide-out, it was great.

Of course he didn't say so. BA growled at Murdock to give the kitten back once he'd parked the car, and while Face and Murdock squabbled over who got the bigger pillow in their bedroom BA went into the kitchen to find a saucer so the kitten could have something to eat.

Just as BA was depositing the little ball of fur on the countertop so it could reach the milk – which the kitten attacked enthusiastically – Hannibal came in with a serious look on his face.

“You know we can't keep it, BA.”

BA scowled at his colonel. “I ain't Murdock, Hannibal, I know we can't! But you look at them eyes and tell me you wouldn'ta taken 'er, too.”

Hannibal smiled slightly. “I hear your, sergeant. I'm sure one of the kids will just love a kitten. I'll be in the den; I got an idea.”

BA turned back to the kitten. It was meowing in between licks, going after the milk with gusto. BA found himself smiling, just a little. That thing really was adorable. He'd have to get it some proper kitty food so it wouldn't get hungry again.

“Can we call 'er Mildred, BA?” said a timid voice from the door.

BA sighed internally and put his scowl before turning to face Murdock. “How you know it's a girl? An' I thought you was gonna call it Morlock.”

Murdock almost looked guilty, scuffing his toe against the linoleum of the kitchen floor and lowering his eyes. “I had-ta check, BA; we couldn't give 'er a boy's name! I like Morlock better, but she wouldn't be happy with me when she found out I'd cross-named her. I think Morlock sounds more masculine, don't you?”

BA was tempted to smile. Trust that fool to be ashamed that he'd looked at a kitten's private parts. Sometimes Murdock's special brand of crazy was almost endearing. Most of the time, though, it was just annoying.

“She ain't stayin' with us, fool,” BA said sternly, glaring at his team mate for good measure. “You call her whatever you want, but don't you get any ideas about keepin' her!”

Murdock beamed at him, then, and scampered over to sit very quietly by the counter and watch the newly named Mildred with a nearly sane smile on his face.

***

Murdock made a little toy from string and an old wine cork, dangling it in front of Mildred until she was in a playful frenzy of attack. Murdock carried her around everywhere, except when he coaxed her into following him around on soft kitty paws. Murdock refused to have the kitten eat separately from the team, always putting her little dish of food on the floor right next to his own chair.

BA was very tempted to point out the fact that he was the one who'd found Mildred, and thus she rightfully belonged to _him_ until they found her a permanent home. He got as far as saying, “She ain't your cat, fool!” before Murdock fixed him with big, brown eyes and silently handed the kitten over to BA, a pleading expression on his face.

“I was only playing with 'er, BA; I won't try an' muscle in on your relationship!”

BA didn't have the heart to say anything after that, but nodded towards the garage to indicate that Murdock should look after Mildred while BA fixed the bumps his van had suffered during their last escape. Murdock, with an angelic smile on his face, cradled Mildred close to his chest and followed BA out.

“Let's go watch Daddy work, Mildred!”

BA refrained from growling. He really did. The little sound of anger he made hardly qualified as a growl.

***

The rest of the team were sleeping. BA had first watch, so he was still up, seated in the kitchen with his ears pricked for any suspicious sounds. Mildred was gambolling around his feet, refusing to stay in her room. Well, technically it was his room, but hey. The tiny thing apparently didn't like to be alone, and BA – although he refused to admit it – was growing too fond of her to close the door and shut her in.

“Maybe keepin' you ain't such a bad idea,” BA said softly to the tiny meows coming from the vicinity of his ankles. He bent down and held out his hand, and Mildred crawled right into it, her tiny paws so soft you could hardly feel them. BA looked fondly at his little night watch companion. She was so tiny; she actually fit into the palm of his hand. She was nearly the same colour, too.

“You wanna stay with BA, kitty?” he murmured, stroking her as gently as he could with one finger. He was almost afraid to crush her. “You wanna live in the van with the A-Team?”

There was a sort of choking sound, and BA's head came up alongside his gun, pointed at the source of the noise. Which turned out to be Murdock, standing in the doorway clad in blue flannel pyjamas and a pair of absolutely insane rabbit slippers.

Murdock didn't even flinch at the gun; they were all well used to being aimed at. The pilot only shuffled into the room, surreptitiously wiping at the corner of his eye. BA's stomach began to feel leaden. What the hell, was Murdock crying?

“I wanna keep her, too, BA,” Murdock said softly. “We could. I'm sure Hannibal would let us. Can't we just get 'er a cage or somethin'?”

“And who'd take care of her when Decker shoots us? Or throws us back in the slammer?” BA said, trying very hard not to agree with Murdock. Ah, hell, and there the crazy fool went, tearing up. Actually tearing up. “Fool, whatchu cryin' for?”

“I kinda wish you'd look at me like you look at Mildred,” Murdock said, his voice barely there.

BA didn't know what to say. He didn't know how to even start replying to that. Like he looked at the kitten? Sort of protective and careful? Like he wanted to... oh, yeah. That'd explain things. Like he wanted to keep it.

Since BA still didn't know what to say after making that connection, he did the only thing he could do. He stood up, handed the little furball over to Murdock, and leaned in – very carefully not squashing Mildred between their bodies – to give Murdock a hesitant kiss. A very, very hesitant kiss.

“BA?”

“I do look at you like I look at her,” BA said gruffly, looking at the floor. “I just don't want you to see it.”

Murdock was very silent for a few seconds. Then he put Mildred back on the table BA had just been sitting by, and pressed up close to the mechanic, putting his arms around him in a hug. A long, tight hug which didn't leave any room for doubt at all.

“I don't think we need to adopt a child to save this -”

“Fool, you quote Face one more time and your chin be quotin' my fist!”

“Okay. But you know what I mean, don't you, BA?”

“... Yeah. I mean it, too.”

On the kitchen table, Mildred meowed happily and did a little jump. She liked it best when her daddy and other daddy weren't fighting.


End file.
